Charles fownes



Pennsylvania, have invented a new and improv @Huib gratta sttat @frnCHARLES FOWNES, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

Letters .Patent No. 7 2,278, dated December 17, 1867.

FURNAGB POR STEAM-BOILERS.

dige tlgrhnlt ttftrttt in 'it lgrst letters itttutrut uniting plut nftigt tame.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, CHARLES Fon/NES, of the city of Pittsburg, in thecounty of Allegheny, and State of ed SmokeConsumer; and I do herebydeclare that the following is a full and exact description thereof,which will enable others skilled in the art 'to make and use the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in whichl Figure 1 isa longitudinal section of my smoke-consumer, applied to a steam-boiler,through the linez z. Figure 2 is also a sectional view of the same, butthrough the line x x; and Figure 3 is a sectional view of mysmoke-consumer applied to ilat-abottom evaporating-paus, stills, orboilers. v The nature of my invention consists in a smoke-cousumer, moreAfully described below, applicable to the furnaces of steam-boilers,stills, orevaporating-pans, provided with a number of burners soarranged as to furnish a supply of fresh atmospheric air, at differentdegrees of heat, in diierent parts of-the furnace, in the manner and forthe purpose below described.

In order to understand clearly my invention, it is necessary not only toexamine its construction, to have a correct idea of its mode ofoperation.v i i but also I will describe the application of mysmoke-consumer to a cylindrical steam-boiler, as it is almost the sameas for a cylindrical still, and that for any other shape of boilers,stills, Btc., the only difference being in the shape of the diaphragm TT, which will be varied to suit the shape of the apparatus, aud carryout the same principle. i

.A is the masonry door E; F F are the lues of the boiler, and G is thesmoke-stack, so far, all arranged in the ordinary wa'y. Now, instead ofallowing the smoke and unburnt products of combustion to expand in alarge space, under and on the side of the boiler, asis usually done infurnaces built as the dotted liuc S, fig. 2, I build the bottom of myfurnace of a circular shape, H H, leaving an equal distance from theshell of the boiler allthe way, and I place a diaphragm or plate, T T,so as to divide that space in two compartments, one smaller belowthediaphragm. The diaphragm T Tis'composed of asmany separate' platesjointed together as may be thought best tomake it, and it is providedwith a number of burners or' small pipes, located in rows, runningacross the furnace, and placed at certain intervals from each other, asrepresented by the letters U U' U", tc. These burners or small pipes U UU, &c., are not set'in the plates T at right angles with the surface ofsaid plates, but are inclined towards the front of the boiler, or ineppositedirectiou to the natural direction of the draught of thcfurnace. At the extreme end of the diaphragm T there are two pipes, V V,which extend upward, and have an elbow and one or more burners directlyopposite to the ilues F F. At the pointa1 z, where the sectional view istaken, there is below the diaphragm T T a channel, J, which 'ex-tendsthe whole breadth of the furnace, under the bridge-wall. To that channelthere are one or more openings K K, to admit of the external 'nirentering the channel J, and that, or these openings KK, are providedwith registers to regulate the amount of air thus admitted. M M are jetsof compressed air or steam, which are introduced near the openings K K,so as to imp'el the air forward,'and, ,as it were, tocompress-it in thechannel J.

The operation of my smoke-consumer is based on the following facts, andis as follows: When fuel is burnt iu a furnace of considerable length,the unburnt products of combustion, smoke, gas, and particles ofcombustible, as they pass the bridge-wall O, are at a high degree oftemperature; but as they travel on, they lose a great part of theirheat, by giving it off to the boiler and to thesides of the furnace, sothat when they arrive at the point Q they are so far reduced intemperature that any admixture of atmospheric air at that point, if nothighly heated, would not only fail to ignite them, butl actually help tolower still more their temperature, and they would be no better thandull, heavy, damp smoke; but if fresh .air is admitted at the point O,in a limited proportion, it will ignite a part of the unburnt gases andsmoke, and produce a blaze which will heat the pari from O tc P; and ifat the different points U U U U" Um', &c., air is also admitted, but airmore and more heated as we proceed on, then new centres of combustionswill be created at each ro'w of burners, which, hy heating further thediaphragm T, will heat the air below to such degree that, at the point Qand through the pipes V V, the air is so hot that it will ignite thebalance of the unburnt particles of carbon, the gases, and fill the duesF F with a volume of flame.

one'above the diaphragm andy of the furnaces; B is the cylindricalboiler; C is the fire-room, with its grate-bars D and I The object of myarrangement of plates and of burners being to supply air increasing intemperature as the temperature of the smoke decreases in the furnace andflues, so us to establish a balance, and obtain at ali points a perfectcombustion of the gases and particles of solid carbon, products ofimperfect combustion contained in the smoke, the diaphragm Tis so shapedat bottom as to present a channel or gutter, N, wlicrc all the dust willcollect, -cjhicll. can be removed at pleasure. In the ease of{lat-bottom evaporating-pans or stills, fig. 3, the plates arecorrugated so as to answer the same purpose.

I have placed my burners inclined in the oppositedirection to thedraught of the furnace, so as to create a thorough mixtureof the freshair and the unburnt gases, but this is not indiSDGnSablG t0 lill) WOlkll0f HW

